A court in Turkey has sentenced a man to more than 12 years in jail for the fatal beating and stabbing of an American tourist in Istanbul in 2021.

The High Criminal Court in Istanbul sentenced Ferhat Kavdir to 12 years and six months in prison for ‘intentional aggravated injury and its consequences’.

It also handed him five months behind bars for ‘having an unlicensed knife’. It is not clear if the sentences are concurrent or cumulative.

Kavdir – one of five on trial over the murder – told the court via video link from prison that he regretted his actions and had no intention of killing Leonard Samuel Record.

All defendants were acquitted of ‘looting’, while defendants Emre Ates and Tugrulhan Deniz were each fined TRY 2,000 (GBP 88) for ‘simple injury’.

Defendants Mustafa Kerim Ocak and B. Y., who is aged under 18, were acquitted of ‘deliberate killing’.

During the trial, the court had heard how the five were walking through the city in a state of intoxication on 26th December last year.

They approached Leonard and his friend – as seen in this CCTV footage – and told the American to hand over his belongings.

But when he refused, the group set upon him with a flurry of punches and kicks before plunging a blade into his thigh and leaving him for dead.

He was taken to hospital but died of his injuries.